Where do we go from here 14: Scared
by zantha19
Summary: After six months Aang and Toph are still trying to figure out were they stand with each other.
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you for reading. I hope you will like the story. This is the 14****th**** part in a 20 part story that I am writing. You don't have to have read the first 13 parts, but it would help. ****Of course if you don't want to, and there is something in the story that you don't understand, then I would be more than happy to answer any question that you may have. **

**Also I have added a link to a picture of the dress robe Toph is wearing in this part on my profile. It will be under green dress robe, in the where do we go from here section. I hope you like it, and let me know what you think.**

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Toph drummed her bitten down finger nails, onto the large wooden table. No one else seemed to notice the faint drumming sound. The lords and nobles around the table were to busy taking over each other over things that were only really important to them. She blamed Aang for this. It was him that had wanted to come to Ba sing Sa. Now she had gotten dragged into this meeting, and he had left her to face it alone. The main point of the meeting, at least what she had been told was the main point, was that King Bumi was thinking of retiring. This point seemed to have gotten lost amongst all the trade treaty's and disputes over land.

There was also other reasons why she felt so uncomfortable being here. From the minute they arrived in the city, she felt like all eyes were on them, more so than normal. That they knew everything about them, things they had done, just by looking at them. She had never felt like that before, so exposed. The other, and at the moment more pressing reason for her discomfort was sitting four seats to her left, Lord Toro.

While her right hand rested on the table, her fingers drumming on the table, her left hand was hidden in a small pocket in her elaborate dress robe. Where her hand held on to the silver bracelet Lord Toro had given her the last time she saw him. Her finger ran over the engravings on the bracelet, as she thought over how best to return it to him. He had to know she was married to Aang, everyone seemed to know. He was the avatar after all. She could just tell he knew, because unlike everyone else when she entered the large meeting room, he had avoided looking at her. Unlike everyone else, whose eyes seemed to burn into her.

She had said nothing, and neither had he. It was like they didn't want to draw the others attention to their presence. Which was a useless exercise, as they were both very aware that the other was there. Suddenly a flurry of activity pulled Toph from her thoughts. Everyone round the table, now stood up and started to leave. Worrying she may have missed her chance, she quickly pulled herself to her feet, and made her way towards the main door. She could see his vibrations clearly. Pushing her way through the crowd of men that where all a good few inches taller than her, she finally made her way through the door.

She noticed him walking down the corridor to her left. The majority of the crowed seemed to be headed in the opposite direction, so she ran a little after him.

"Lord Toro…"

He stopped, paused for a second, then turned to face her. While forcing a natural look to his face, not that she would ever see it. "Lady Bei Fong…." She was now standing in-front of him, looking every inch the noble lady. "Sorry, lady avatar." A look of confusion crossed her face. "Is that not the correct title."

"I don't know." A faint laugh escaped her lips. He laughed a little to. With the tension broken a little, she moved her left hand to her pocket.

She was about to pull out the bracelet, when he spoke. "Congratulations."

Silence fallowed, as her hand slipped from the pocket and hung by her side. "It wasn't planned."

"I heard your father was organising suitors for you…."

"He was. Then Aang arrived and…..it seemed, it made sense more at the time."

Even after six months, she still found it hard to explain to anyone what the situation really was. How they had got to where they were now. Even harder to explain was what Aang had been thinking. Harder still, what their relationship was now, how to really define it in a way that made sense.

"I wasn't trying to be rude. I am genuinely happy for you."

Toph let out a deep sigh of relief. It was nice to have this issue over with, dealt with and in an amicable way. "Thank you." Her hand once again reached onto her pocket, but this time she did pull out the bracelet. When it was held up to him, he did his best to not showing any feeling on his face again.

"Lady…."

"Toph, just call me Toph."

"Ok, Toph." He lifted his hand and placed it over the bracelet. He then pushed her arm back towards herself. "I want you to keep it."

"I can't."

"Think of it as a wedding gift. I said we could give it any meaning that we want to. I think that is the best meaning for it."

He, with a small smile turned to walk away. Toph felt a sudden panic, like something was going to be left unsaid. So she spoke up. "I thought about contacting you." He turned to face her again. "I..I didn't want to drag you into what was going on, it didn't seem was asking to much."

"It would have been a honour, it was not to much."

An awkward silence followed, as she lowered her head to the floor, and he quickly looked to the left.

The last six months had not been any easier or less complicated and confusing for Aang. Know how he felt about her did not make it any better. In fact it made it worse in many ways worse. In a way he had what he wanted, but not really it was like a huge piece that was missing, the piece that made everything else make-sense. There had been many times he thought about telling her, but he never did. There were times when someone would say something, sometimes even him, that made her look closely at the new situation they were in. Then she would get this look in her eyes. A look that said if she was pushed, she was likely to run. He knew that look from when he first met her.

Feeling a little guilty about leaving her to face the meeting on her own, he went to meet her, when he though it would be done. He had intended to go when he first heard about it, but he just couldn't face it. It was bad enough in a large group, but sitting around a table where all eyes could be locked onto you in a second. Knowing something about you, that you wanted to keep private, something that should only be between him and Toph. He couldn't face that, so he left her to face it on her own. It was worse when they were together, so it wouldn't be as bad for her on her own. He still felt bad for leaving her alone, so he planned to make it up to her.

The majority of the lords and nobles had left by the time he got there. At the far end of the corner he saw her, dressed in a bright green robe, with elaborate gold detail. Her hair was half up, the rest was almost reaching her waist. She was smiling, and laughing a little. Her smile was a real smile, and bright. Unlike any smile he had seen from her in a long time.

The man she was talking to, who he recognised as he got closer, seemed to be smiling and laughing to. When he noticed him, he bowed his head a little. "Avatar."

Toph turned to face Aang who was now a few feet behind her. "Aang." She smiled at him, a real smile, making her eyes shine. "You remember Lord Toro." She turned back a little and gestured to the young man.

"Yes, of course." He nodded his head a little.

Lord Toro, reached out his hand to shack Aang's. the avatar offered a forced smile as he shock the man's hand. Once the shack was over, Lord Toro turned back to Toph. Taking hold of her hand, he kissed it. "Lady Toph, Avatar Aang, congratulations." With that he turned to walk away.

Though she couldn't see it, when she turned back to face Aang she just knew there was an odd look on his face. "Is everything ok."

Slowly he turned his gaze back onto his new wife. " Yes, of course."

"Aang don't think you can lie to me. What is the problem."

"Nothing…just….I think in marriage….relationships, like ours is meant to be, then…there everyone…..gets one…."

"Aang, would you get to the point." She laughed a little as she spoke, softening her tone.

"I think we should be able to ask one thing of each other, that we don't have to explain, without question."

"Ok." Toph sounded a little unsure. In a spilt second a million different thoughts raced through her head. "What one thing do you want to ask me."

"No questions or explanations." Toph gave a slight nod. "Ok. Don't speak to him again, without me."

He sound so nervous that she couldn't help but laugh. "Twinkles, are you jealous."

"No, I….no questions, you agreed."

She ifted her arms half into the air. "Fine. I will never speak to him agian."

"Thank you." He smiled and nodded as the turned to walk along the corridor.

"It will be easy. He's moving away, further north, to get married."

"What." Aang stopped in his tracks, as he turned to Toph, who gave him a quick nod. "It doesn't count then. If he….."

"Don't get mad cause you wasted your one request." She was still grinning as she started to walk on again.

"No Toph, that's not fair, it doesn't count." Feeling him moving to catch up with her, she sped up.

"Yes it dose. Now what am I going to request of you…."

He was now very close to catching up to her, so she started to run. "Toph…."

"I'll have to think carefully about it….don't want to waste it."

He was now chancing her ass he ran down the corridor, then took a left down a side staircase. The mix of their footsteps bounding of eth stone floors, and their laughter echoed throughout the corridor, and caused a lot of shared looks of confusion between the people that heard it.

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**Once again thank you for reading. I had this part worked out a while ago. It is going to just be a short 3 maybe 4 part story. The thing is that I don't really know what to do with it now. This will sound a little silly, but I was going to have Aang singing in the next chapter. I know how cheesy. I don't like that idea mush now. So I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas for what could happen next. ****I would like for them to do something ****nice together, but I can't really think of anything at the minute. ****It may take me a while to up-date, as I don't know what to write next, so any help****, ideas for things to do**** would be greatly received, and help me up-date sooner. Hope to here for you, thank you. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, thank you for reading. I'm sorry that it has taken so long to up-date; it took me a while to figure out where to go next with the part, I also start school again next week so I was getting ready for that. I would also like to thank you for the reviews. I really wasn't expecting there to be so many, I really didn't think anyone would still be reading the story. In my other story I write responses to the review. I never did that in this one as there was never that many, and I didn't know if people would mind me using there users names. So I will responded to them, but I wouldn't use user names I hope you know which is a response you're your review. **

**They are cute, I worry I make it to cute to soon, that it's a little out of character. **

**I like that idea, but I am saving the reunion for a little later on. It will defiantly be used at some point. **

**Thank you so much, that is such a nice thing to say. I like that idea to, I do have something planned for that whole question thing for the end of this part. I hope that you will like how it comes out.**

**Thank you so much. I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long to up-date. I will definitely not take so long again. I am really glad that you are liking the story, and thanks for the idea.**

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Toph pushed the large side door of the palace open, and ran out into the square in-front of the palace. Instead of hearing the door slam shut behind her, she heard Aang's footsteps coming after her. They were soon drowned out, as she became aware of an even louder source of noise. In-front of her, in the main square of the city, were crowds of people walking around the stalls that had been set up.

As she took in more of what was going on in-front of her, she also tried to remember what the name of the festival was. There were so many it was hard to know which one was going on only a few feet from her. The earth king was very fond of festivals; he would have one for almost anything. This was probably to celebrate a good harvest or the last leafs turning brown or some such silly thing.

Aang slowed down after he left the palace. He looked over the festival in-front of him, as he slowly walked over to Toph. The people came and went in all different directions, all of different ages, but all smiling in some way. Some grinned widely; others only had a faint curling of the corners of theirs lips. There were also those that only showed any kind of a smile, by a sparkle in their eye. Toph felt him walking towards her. When he was only a few feet from her, she too like everyone else smiled. Then quickly took off into the crowed. Aang didn't smile as he took off after her; he was to confused to smile.

It was surprisingly easy to make his way through the crowds without being seen. Everyone was to busy looking at the stalls to notice him. He on the other hand had his eyes locked onto Toph as she too made her way through the crowd. There were times, for a few seconds when he lost sight of her, her bright green dress. Then he would see a glance of bright green or a hint of her black hair, and be locked onto her again.

Toph kept track on Aang, making sure he never got to close, but also never got to far away. Due to her concentrating on her husband, Toph found herself bombing into more people than she would have liked. When turning a corner a little to fast she knocked right into a man how was carrying a large basket in his right arm, his stock to sell.

"Sorry." She rushed out.

Before she could move away, he reached into his basket, and handed her a sample of what he was selling. A red rose. "One beauty for another." With a faint smile, she took it from him. Noticing that Aang was quickly getting closer, she moved on.

Aang saw her just turning the corner, before she went out of sight. Glancing round he looked at the stalls nearest to him. They were selling an array of toys and dolls for children. Just behind him were stalls that were covered in a variety of coloured and patterned materials. A familiar colour appeared for a brief second in a gap between two stalls. With a grin on his face, he quickly moved forward.

Toph paused for a second, trying to make up her mind which way to go. She could go right, towards the food stalls. Left, the jewellery stalls. Back the way she came, confusing him, she hoped. There was also straight ahead, the stalls that sold weapons, of all different forms. Before she could chose a direction, she felt a sudden movement behind her. The air picked up, blowing her hair in her face. She had expected him to use bending much sooner. With a grin she turned to her left.

She only made it a few steps, before a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist. Aang smiled, and let out a faint laugh, as did she, as he pulled her against his chest. After a few seconds their laughter started to died down. While they took a few deep breaths, they became aware of how close they were to each other. Their heads were mere inches apart.

A nervous laugh escaped Toph's lips, as she moved her hands, which had grabbed hold of Aang's arm, when he wrapped it around her. With her hands gone, freeing him, Aang let her go. His eyes glanced down. When her hands took hold of his arm, he felt something in her hand. The red rose she was holding, it stood out against her green dress. It would stand out even more against her black hair. With a hint of a grin, he reached out and took the rose from her. He then slid the stem into her hair, where it had been pulled back into a bum, made from the top half of her hair.

His hand then slid through her hair, then down her neck. He was about to break their contact, when she lifted her hand, placing it on his wrist. With a slight look of relief, that he felt luckily she couldn't see, he lowered his head down, to meet hers.

Some of the crowd around them, stopped for a second to see that avatar and his wife's display of affection. They never stopped for long though. It didn't seem right to stare at them. They also didn't know what to make of what they were seeing. It seemed odd to see the avatar and the only metalbender in the world acting in such a way, like normal people. People that had feelings, and showed them. Who weren't defined by their titles. They was also an unnaturalness to their body language with each other. There were moments were they seemed to not know how to be with each other. Then there were small moments where they moved almost perfectly with each other.

When they pulled apart, Toph lowered her head a little. Aang lowered his too, giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head. "Chasing after you has made me really hungry. What to see what they have at the stalls."

She nodded. "Yeah, getting away from you was harder than I thought."

"What do you mean, getting away from me. I caught you. Without much effort I might add."

She smirked a little, while nodding her slowly. "Is that right."

She turned away from him quickly. She made it two large steps, before he once again caught her. This time he wrapper both is arms around her, and picked her up of the ground a little. The beginnings of a shriek esacpped her lips, as he spun her round, before finally placing her feet back on the ground. "Yeah that's right." He whispered into her ear." With letting go of her, he moved them forwards, towards the food stalls. To keep her balance a little more, Toph crossed her arms and held onto Aang's arms.

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**Once again thank you for reading. ****I hope that you liked it. ****I am also sorry that the chapter was alittle shorter than normal, I just thought that this was a nice place to stop at. ****There will be another two, or so chapters in this part. ****I plan to have the next chapter up by the end of the week, to make up for the lateness of this chapter.****The next part will also be a fairly short one, but form that point on the parts will get longer, and there will also be the payoff of a few things that I have been trying to ****work in. As always I would love to hear what you think of the story, so please review. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey. I'm very sorry that it has taken me so long to up-date. I have just started back at school and I have had a lot of work to do. This will be the last chapter in this part of the story. I am sorry that it has been such a short part. The next part is also going to be short, but longer than this part. I will now more onto the responses. Thank you for all the reviews, it really means a lot. **

**Maria. I am sorry that I am not going to use your idea exactly, but I am using parts of it. I am sorry I have taken so long to up-date. The next part should be up-dated much sooner, as I am rewriting it; it will not take me so long to up-date. Also sorry if you didn't see your response I did reply. Thank you so much, it is great to know that people are enjoying the story. I really didn't think that many people would be interested in reading the story second time round, I just felt I needed to rewrite it, as it was pretty badly written. Thank you so much for your offer, you help so much by just reviewing and letting me know what you think of the story. What you like and don't like, so I can fix the problems and make the story better. **

**Energywelder. They are rather cute aren't they, thank you. Sorry again for the dely.**

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As the sun finally fully set in the sky, and the light from the many lanterns was the only light to see by, Aang and Toph sat on the roof of the palace. They were eating a picnic of food they had bought from the food stools. While they eat they watched the people moving around below them, going about their lives. Unaware that they were being watched from on high. The couple were playing a game they had just invented.

"That guy there, with the two large bags. He has just bought a bunch of new stuff for the baby he and his wife are having." Aang said.

Toph nodded. "It's their first child. When it's born he'll see it has blue eyes. Then he'll now that she has cheated on him."

She laughed a little. So did Aang, but not as much. She always did that, make the story he made up for the people more dramatic, sordid and sad. It had been funny at first now it was a little annoying.

"Okay, those three kids, by the bench. Their siblings, the girl is the oldest, and an earthbender. She uses it to beat up her brothers."

"They are the ones that make her though. They know just how to annoy her, provoke her. They are a little jealous they aren't benders, but not really."

With a smile on his face, he picked up a piece of mango from their picnic and threw it lightly at the back of her head. "See you can come up with a nice story."

She turned from the crowed to face him. "Of course I can." She seemed genuinely shocked. "You just started off with such mushy story, I had to balance it out."

Her lips slowly curled into a bright smile. Aang smiled again. "Like us. Balancing each other out."

She felt his eyes on her, and knew she was looking right into his too, by sheer luck. This lasted for what felt like a long time. In reality though it was only a few seconds, before they started to move a little closer to each other. Then a sudden loud noise echoing all around them, caused them to all but jump back from each other, and their hearts to almost burst out of their chests. Aang's eyes quickly glanced towards where the noise came from, and he saw the whole city bathed in a bright green glow. As he glanced back at Toph, the sound came again, and this time the city was bathed in red light.

Looking up at the sky he like everyone else watched as the fireworks sored into the sky and burst into life, for one glorious second, before the ashes feel silently back to earth. That was all but one. The earthbender sitting next to him, was not enjoying herself as much as everyone else. Toph had always hated loud noises that came out of nowhere. Especially if she also couldn't see the source of the noise. While she took in deep breaths, she uncrossed her legs, and pulled them intro her chest, her chin resting on her knees.

After a few more fireworks of various colours had gone off, Aang turned back to look at Toph. Seeing her slight discomfort, no matter how hard she was trying to hide it from him, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Pulling her toward him, her head rested on his shoulder. He only expected her to rest like that, let him comfort her for a few seconds at most, so he was surprised and pleased that she stayed like that, with no sign of wanting to move away.

Though neither wanted to move, they were forced to when the heavens opened and the rain came. The crowd in the square below them quickly disbursed, running for shelter. The stool owners though had to stay and pack away their good, before they were damaged. Aang quickly moved his arm from Toph's shoulder to under her arm, as he pulled her to her feet with him, before she could say anything, make any protest he bent an air stream that carried them down onto the streets of the city. They were still a few streets from the house they were staying in, when the landed so they had to run the rest of the way. Toph had to pick up the bottom of her dress, so she didn't trip over it.

Once they reached the safety, more importantly dryness of the porch of the house, they stopped as the adrenaline caused them to burst into laughter. Seeing how her dripping wet, Aang lifted his hands to Toph's shoulders, where he in vain tried to rub them dry.

"Sorry about that."

"I don't think even the avatar can control the weather."

He laughed a little again. "No maybe not."

For the third time that evening a comfortable silence feel over them. In that silence they became very aware of how close they were to each other. Aang lowered his eyes to the floor at his feet, but he did not remove his hands from Toph's shoulders. He could feel her shacking, he didn't know if it was from eth cold, or their closeness. When he lifted his gaze again, he also moved forward. Feeling his movement through the ground, Toph took a large step back, out of his light hold.

"I think I have decided to use on one request now." A smile was forced onto her face.

Aang did his best to force a light tone his word, hide the slight feeling of hurt he felt. "What's that."

Feeling guilty for hurting him, Toph took a step back towards him, as he leaned back against the wall by the door. "It's a question." Aang nodded. "What are we." Her voice was no very serious. She didn't need to see his face to know he was confused. "We're married. We have….we're friends, but what are we really."

Aang kept his mouth shut, so as not to let out a laugh, but he had to answer her someway. "I'm not going to answer that Toph." As he spoke he shook his head, and pushed himself off the way.

He was about to open the door, when Toph reached out and took hold of his arm. "Why not."

Slowly he turned to face her. Her wet hair clung to her face, which in the faint light like always to him seemed to glow. "Because you already know the answer to that, and that's not what you're really asking."

She removed her hold on his arm. "No I don't, and yes it is." She sounded overly defensive, so he didn't believe her.

"I'm not playing this game."

He again moved to entre the house, but again he was stopped as Toph blocked his way with her arm. "Aang….."

"You know how I feel…you have to know that by now." He lifted his arm to take hold of her hand, pulling it down to rest in-between them. "You are trying to figure out how you feel. That's why you asked me that question. You hoped that my answer would tell you how you feel. I'm not doing that, that is something you have to figure out for yourself."

Still holding her hand, he pushed the door open, and moved to walk through it. Just when he was about to let her hand go, she held onto it tightly.

"Aang, what….."

"You don't have to decide now. We have all the time in the world." She didn't look convinced. "We're Aang and Toph. That's all that matters."

She gave a small nod, but her head was still lowered. He moved to walk away, but before he could she pulled him back. Her free hand that was not holding his, wrapped around his neck. Her lips made contact with his so quickly he was momentarily taken by surprise. When he had could think again, eh wrapped his free arm, around her waist. When their lips parted, he lifted her up, and card her over the threshold.

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**Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. ****Sorry that after that wait it was so short a chapter. ****The next part will be where do we go from here 15: where air kisses earth. It is up now, but the rewritten, hopefully ****better version will be up by this**** Friday. I hope you will review and read the next part****, thank you.**


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